Prospects and Challenges of Positioning Harare as an Urban Township Tourism Destination

Zimbabwe’s tourism industry has been largely wildlife driven. However when considering the everchanging tourist preferences and increased competition from the regional and global tourism suppliers, Zimbabwe needs to urgently diversify its tourism resource if it is to remain a competitive destination. It is against this background that this paper explores the potential for urban township tourism, as a unique and viable tourism offering for Zimbabwe, in order to augment the existing tourism products. Using a qualitative research methodology, data was collected using in-depth interviews and participant observation. Findings from this study indicate that townships in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital city have a lot of potential attractions and festivals that can be harnessed for urban township tourism including buildings and places of historical significance, culture, markets, socialization areas, arts and crafts. The researchers concluded that with appropriate urban township tourism research, planning and robust product development and packaging, Zimbabwe’s tourism industry can most likely be rejuvenated through township tourism particularly in the some of the popular suburbs inter-alia Mbare, Highfields, Epworth, Waterfalls and Warren Park.